There are so many incredible benefits to starting music lessons at a young age! However, it is important to start at the right time and with the right teacher. Here are some indicators that your child will be successful with flute!
1. They have shown interest
If your child has been asking repeatedly to learn the flute, they are ready! Learning comes naturally and easily when we support the child’s natural curiosity and intrinsic motivation.
Children that have parents or older siblings that play instruments almost always grow up wanting to play too! If you are already a very musical family, it is basically guaranteed that your child will follow in those footsteps.
If your child is not exposed to music on a regular basis but you are looking to spark their interest, the best thing to do is to get your own flute and begin to learn so they see how much fun it can be! Your skill level does not matter! What does matter is that you model joy and a love for music.
2. They can focus for a period of time
Young beginners should ideally practice 5-15 minutes per day (or as many days as you can!) If your child can stick with the same activity for that amount of time, they are ready for music lessons!
The actual lessons will be longer than that amount of time, but the right teacher will be able to flow with your child’s interest and attention span and move from one activity to the next as necessary. Plus, if your child is young, part of the lesson time will be allotted for the teacher to teach the parent. There will also be time for movement, singing, and games. So if your child can focus on a task for about 5-15 minutes, they will do great!
3. They know their ABCs and can count to 10
The music alphabet goes from A-G so being able to recognize these letters is very helpful. Playing music also involves counting beats and rests so that’s a good thing to explore before starting lessons!
4. They can take a deep breath and exhale slowly
Woodwind instruments involve breath control so practice taking some deep breaths and blowing air out slowly. Flute teachers have many fun ways to help little ones practice this skill. Some of the games include blowing through a straw, air hockey with pom-poms, and bubbles!
5. They have developed some fine motor control
To play the flute or any instrument, fine motor skills are a must! Pressing the keys, stretching fingers, and moving certain combinations of fingers at a certain times are all challenging skills that build over time! Your teacher will have little tricks and fingerplay games to break down these intricate skills. Some fun ways to build up your pre-schooler’s fine motor skills before starting music lessons include cutting with scissors, holding a pencil, play-dough manipulation, snapping together legos, and stacking blocks.
6. They fit the instrument
This one may seem obvious, but if your child is not physically tall enough to play the instrument, then it is too soon to begin lessons. Yes the flute is a very long instrument and the full size would be too big for a small child. But luckily for us, flutes actually come in child sizes, which makes it one of the best instruments for young children to start off with! Check out the chart above for some of the smaller flute options.
7. YOU are ready to learn with them!
And lastly, the best time to start music lessons is when YOU are ready! It’s a journey of many ups and downs, hard work and challenges. The younger your child is when they start, the bigger the role you will have. So just be prepared for that and commit to it when you have the time, the patience, and the willingness to learn something new.
If you and your child are ready for flute lessons, we would love to help you start the journey! Join us for a free trial online at tuttiflutes.com